A ban on institutional investors: 

January 9, 2026

Trump took to Truth Social earlier today, announcing his intention to prohibit certain investors from scooping up single-family properties. Read the full story on  https://www.realestatenews.com/2026/01/07/trump-taking-steps-to-ban-corporate-home-purchases

 

“…  32 institutional investors collectively owned 446,000 single-family homes in 2021. A decade earlier, no one investor owned more than 1,000 single-family properties. Even with that growth, however, a separate report from BatchData found that mega-investors with 1,000+ homes hold just 2.1% of investor-owned inventory…”

 

Data changed one year later: “Large institutional investors own a relatively small slice of the total U.S. single-family home market, with estimates around 1-3% nationally, but hold significant portions (up to 29%) in specific high-growth cities, owning hundreds of thousands of homes collectively, with a few mega-investors holding tens of thousands each in major markets like Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Charlotte. As of mid-2022, they owned around 574,000 single-family rentals nationwide, but their local market impact is much greater. That was 2021 data – The current situation could be much different 5 years later.

 

This may be the Adam Smith invisible hand of the free-market at work … but it is affecting home prices and Americans’ ability to afford to buy

Louis Swanepoel
Chase Pacific Property Management